Americas - Day 3

Brazil set sights on World Group

Brazil won the tie in Montevideo with a 5-0 score and will now have the chance of accomplishing their most desired goal: going back to the World Group.

Joao Zwetsch's players showed that, according to the level of their tennis, Americas Group I is maybe not the right place for them. The Uruguayans did not pose a threat at any time and lost all the matches without even taking a single set.

Maybe the story would have been different if Uruguay's No. 1 Pablo Cuevas could have played, but even that seems unlikely in the light of the superiority showed by Thomaz Bellucci, Bruno Soares and Ricardo Mello.

"You always want to win, but with Pablo out there were other objectives for us," said Uruguay's captain Perez Cassarino. “We need to build a new team and allow players like Martin Cuevas and other juniors to gain experience at the top level.”

Brazil have some upsets in their recent quest for promotion to the World Group. The biggest one came in 2009 when they lost to Ecuador at home and last year when they lost to India, having led the tie 2-0.

"In the end, you always learn very important lessons from your mistakes. I was the captain in the tie against India and it was a very tough defeat for us, but we learnt a lot. I think we have a good chance this time," said Zwetsch.

The new Davis Cup rankings have been released and the rival that Brazil will face in the World Group play-offs will be come from the following group of nations: India, Russia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Chile, Croatia, Austria and Israel.

Canada reach play-offs after comeback

Vasek Pospisil and Philip Bester went from villains to heroes in a matter of two days. The Canadians won the last two rubbers of their Americas Group I tie against Ecuador to record a 3-2 scoreline and complete an amazing comeback for Canada.

Captain Martin Larendau, who was celebrating his birthday, received the best present possible from his players with Philip Bester putting the cherry on top of the cake with a 62 76(3) 64 win over Ivan Endara that sealed the victory for the North Americans.

The local player, Endara, did not have a good start in the decisive match and saw his first service game broken. Bester managed to play at a very high level and looked always in control of the match. Despite the noisy support that the Ecuadorian crowds gave to his player, the Canadian was superior and completed the comeback with a straight sets victory.

"It was an amazing feeling to win this tie. We managed to come back against a very difficult team like Ecuador, with very young and talented players. But we were very aggressive today and I feel very happy that we won away and on clay," said Bester.

The Canadians had lost the first two rubbers on Friday but did not drop any sets from that moment on, and Laurendau praised the work of his players.

"It's unbelievable because Friday was very difficult,” he aid. “We only took two sets that day. And then we won nine sets in a row, incredible. We had a meeting on Friday night and agreed on keeping focused and not to panic, I'm very happy because this is a victory of all the players as a team."

On the other hand, Endara could not hide his disappointment after not being able to win the last point for Ecuador. "I think the reason (of the defeat) was that both Julio (Campozano) and I did not recover from Friday’s matches as quickly as the Canadians. They showed that they can play three matches at high intensity. Pospisil impressed me; he played the three matches and improved day after day. They were very consistent today."

In the first match of the day, Pospisil earned the second point for his country and kept Canada's hope alive after beating Ecuador's Julio Campozano 63 64 75 in 2 hours 35 minutes.

Canada will now play the World Group play-off in September, while Ecuador will play a relegation playoff against Mexico as local.